Now that Team Echinacea 2026 is more than half-way done with our season, were doing some house keeping items to help fill the time, one of which is killing weeds in our experimental plots! Our biggest weed to kill right now is Rhus glabra, or smooth sumac. Although sumac is a native plant to Minnesota, it makes ours, and Echinacea angustifolias, life a whole lot harder out in the common gardens. It spreads very fast when not managed, and makes walking through much more difficult.
We tested two types of application of triclopyr on sumac. In ExPt01, we worked by ourselves and applied triclopyr to the bottom 10cm of each stem. In ExPt02 we worked in pairs, one person would chop the tops off of sumac and the other would apply the herbicide to the top 10cm of the available plant, including the exposed top. We found that our application in ExPt02 went faster and made application easier.
Both applications of herbicide on sumac were not in the plots themselves but were on the borders of the plots. Soon we will work on herbicide application in the common gardens.
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